Learn Italian: Tua cognata è giovane, ma mia zia è vecchia. - Your sister-in-law is young, but my aunt is old.

Normally, Italian requires a definite article (like il or la) before possessive words. However, there is a special exception for family members: when referring to a singular, close family member like cognata (sister-in-law) or zia (aunt), you drop the article.

Do tua and mia match the speaker's gender or the family member's gender?

They match the family member! In Italian, possessive words like tua (your) and mia (my) always agree with the gender of the person or thing being talked about, not the person speaking. Since cognata and zia are both feminine words, we use the feminine possessives tua and mia.

Why does vecchia end in -a but giovane ends in -e, if both describe women here?

Adjectives like vecchio (old) have four forms (-o, -a, -i, -e) and change their ending to match the noun, becoming vecchia to match the feminine zia. But giovane (young) belongs to a group of adjectives that naturally end in -e in the singular. These adjectives don't change for gender, so giovane is used for both men and women.

How do you pronounce the gn in cognata?